'The mischief is,' cried the man, 'that we may be walking yoked round and round endlessly, without ever coming to either light. Good God, what a horrible issue to this adventure! Nobody ever visits this place, I suppose?' 'Only you,' said she; 'and it's my business to save you.' 'How sorry I am that you should be here I can't say, yet it is natural to want to get out.' 'But it seems so mad to come into this smuggler's hole with a dream of booty, with no further provision than a candle; and it is wonderful that you should not know by that same light that you had been entombed, and spent a whole night underground!' 'Time flies and time loiters under wild conditions. I can tell you that, for I'm a sailor.' 'Are you?' she ejaculated. 'What rating?' 'I lately commanded a merchantman. I have lain awake all night sick in hospital, and have heard the quarters and halves strike with the rapidity of chimes. I could not have sworn that three hours have passed. I shall _look_ the time, I suspect, when I get out. I am beginning to feel a bit weary of this blackness, and long for that one round of light that offered me a leap as an escape.' As he spoke these words they made a step, and lo! on their left, at the extremity of the passage, glowed, within fifty feet, the cheery star of day. 'Hurrah!' shouted the man. The girl, in a single sob, unheard by her companion, expressed her pent-up feelings. 'Yes, there's the port-hole right enough,' said the man. 'Now you know the way.' 'Come along straight,' she said. She led him as before, and touching the wall, made a true course for the opening. But as she advanced she grew very uneasy on observing that no light fell through the hatch-hole, and that the short flight of steps was not visible in any definition of colour. Her companion, stumbling slowly alongside of her, presently noticed this. 'How did you get in?' said he. 'By a trap which I left open.' 'It isn't night again, I hope,' said he, with a ghastly laugh. 'I see no light,' she answered, 'and this is the corridor of the entrance. Oh, my God! I fear some meddlesome wretch, whilst I've been talking to you, instead of hastening above, has shut us down.' 'So that we can't get out?' 'Not from within.' 'Well,' said he, after a pause, and with a tone of courage in his voice, 'what we've got to do is to go to that light-hole yonder and wait for something to pass, and make our case known. Somebody is sure to pass.' 'Let me see if I can feel the steps with my foot,' said the girl. 'But hold on to me.'